Aug 3 & 4 - San Blas Islands - Kuna Yala

In keeping with the already established format created by Bert (Yeah to Bert on the awesome keeping of the blog)!  I will continue with our splurge in Kuna Yala, sitting with a beer of course.

(This is a picture of where our lodge is located...)

After a brief 45 min flight from Panama City we touched down on a small patch of cement in the middle of the jungle surrounded by turquoise water at what is the airport of Playon Chico.  Playon Chico is one of the Kuna communities that are part of the San Blas Islands.  We were greeted by Blanco, a staff member from our resort and headed with one other family (the entire number of passengers on our small plane) by boat to Yandup on it’s own private island.  The islands are beautiful, reminding Gabe and I of the illustrations from ‘where the wild things are’ we were half expecting a humongous creature to come stomping out of the palms down onto the beach, or to see a little boy scurrying into the jungle wearing a wolf costume.  We arrive just after 7 am with breakfast being served and our first trip to a remote beach scheduled for 930.  Just enough time to have some coffee and get sorted in our cabana.  As we entered our room I think we were all a little taken aback with the beautiful rustic nature of the space.  4 beds all in white linens with mosquito netting, the expectant thatched roof and cane walls.  It was perfect and exactly what you would want to stay in if you were sleeping over the water on an island.  There was a little deck with 2 swaying hammocks over the ocean which we spent our lazy afternoons in.  Perfect. 

            We spent our first morning snorkeling and beach combing on one of the almost 400 uninhabited islands.  Now I know where Michelle got her impressive shell collection!  And to think that at Crescent or White Rock beach we are happy if we can manage to find a clamshell that still has both sides joined.  Ha!  We had to spend at least 10 minutes trying to pick the ‘keepers’ out of the gazillion conch and other incredible finds of ours.  The areas of reef that we snorkeled were not overly full of aquatic life which made it all the more surprising when in the afternoon we watched canoe after canoe come by to dock at the kitchen and sell their afternoon catch for our dinner.  Octopus, lobsters, crab, fish.  It was fun to watch from my hammock and then to have an idea of what would be on the menu for dinner.

            The islands are remote and only accessed by boat from one to another, so guests are tied to the program that is provided, one excursion in the morning and one late afternoon.  Ours were beach trips in the mornings and something a bit more educational or cultural in the afternoons.  The first afternoon outing was to the cemetery.  As you might guess, I was the only one that was really interested in the afternoon outings.  ‘It’s too hot, too far, I’m too hungry, thirsty, tired’ was what came out of the mouths of the boys.  As hot and thirsty as they were, we all went up the cemetery which had graves under thatched roofs scattered over a hill.  We learned that the Kuna are buried in 3 meter graves hanging in a hammock, and are visited by their family members every morning.  Yes, every morning!

Our second day was planned out similarly, beach/snorkel in the morning, lunch and then a visit this time to the community in the afternoon.  The community tour was, as you would expect, a little staged.  Within minutes of getting off the boat, we were swarmed with kids, both because we had 2 boys with us but mostly because you are expected to pay for photos.  So ‘take a picture of me’… ‘take a picture of me’ is all we heard all afternoon.  The community itself is made up of thatched roofed and cane walled houses, which are communally built.  Each family has 2, 1 for cooking and I for living and sleeping in.  Outhouses are placed at the end of short wharves around the island, the waste goes directly into the ocean.   Not to worry though, we were told, ‘there is a tide that takes it away to a non-populated area’ – phew…

After about 40 minutes of listening to the spiel and being distracted with the children, Gabe decided enough of this standing around and went to go climb a pole with the kids… of course he did… As we headed off in our boat back to Yandup, we saw an alternative to using the outhouses… a row of boys lined up on a warf squatting over the water, that works too I guess.

We ended our time there with a lobster dinner and a bottle of bubbly to celebrate our 11^th wedding anniversary.  This was a great way to end our brief reprieve from the truck.  Now onto Costa Rica! xox